Review

Screenshots

Electronic Arts will deliver millions upon millions of religiously devoted football fans to hell compliments of the publisher’s first-ever Super Bowl ad, which will be for its upcoming literary reworking-and-slash Dante’s Inferno.

"While digital outreach to Facebook, Twitter, and online bloggers is a core part of our marketing strategy,” EA president Frank Gibeau said in a statement, "we felt that advertising during the Super Bowl is an excellent way to introduce this new IP to a massive cross-section of people who are likely already familiar with the dark and twisted 'Divine Comedy.'"

I think Gibeau is looking at this the wrong way. I think that the vast majority of Super Bowl viewers (and non-viewers for that matter) have never read or are really that familiar with the The Divine Comedy, but I think this is actually to the game’s benefit, because of how dissimilar the game is from the source material. The sexed up, over-the-top nature of the Super Bowl doesn’t exactly scream "classic literature" but Dante’s Inferno clearly embodies this style and tone, so I think it should be a perfect, if kind of sad, fit.